Saturday, 14 December 2013

Yo, for the past 13 days I have been working on a personal project known as Frostblight. India Swift and I challenged ourselves to tell a story visually through paintings.

Initially we'd thought to convey a story beat in a single image, however we soon found that we needed several panels to convey the message. We began using a flowing panel method which relied on scrolling through the image since we intended for these 'pages' to be viewed via browsers, and later potentially tablet devices.

I have collated the first 12 nights as we call them into a single flowing image stream.

You're welcome to follow the progress of the project on your preferred medium.

Wednesday, 27 November 2013

I saw this photograph of a reconstructed sculpture of an Iceman, a 5,300-year-old mummy also called Ötzi discovered in the Alps and thought he had great character to attempt to capture. I failed on the likeness but it was great fun, and I tried to push the textures in my work a little more than usual.

While attending the London Workshop, we ventured to the gallery at Trifalgar and stocked up on some supplies. I bought my first ever Moleskin and I'm an immediate convert. I've been travelling alot on trains, and its a great way to pass the time.

Where to begin - I've not been putting off writing this. Time has simply been occupied with Life. So much life.

I travelled by train from Dundee to London with my good friend Will Wright. I'm really thankful trains provide a socket for laptops, as I doodled in photoshop for the majority of the journey. Some reference landscapes as they slipped by and the world turned.

Arrival in London was triumphant and it was my first experience of King's Cross which I think was somewhat mixed due to the vast changes the station is under going. I'm very thankful to those whom allowed me to stay in their flat for my time in London, and their enthusiastic dogs.

Left waiting knicked some confidence but to enter the hall and witness everyone sitting in darkness watched Kekai do this thing. 'When in doubt, dragons.' A real tactile sense of creative energy and hush in the room, so many minds ticking away. Learning, watching, inspiration transference all actively happening between Pro and peers. I knew I had made the right decision. I knew I was meant to be here.

"I can draw a fucking cat..."

I received my one and only paintover from the wonderful Shay Hulbert who revealed my distinct lack of unicorns. Crisis averted!

The quest for self improvement begins by holding yourself accountable. Make it real, exclaim your intentions. Your hopes and fears so you can act on them.
I received a number of folio reviews from a great array of professionals, insanely useful. Here's a snapshot of some notes I took from a particular two. Thank you to the others who offered their time and experience to help push me further.

KEKAI KOTAKI

The following are notes I made in earnest while showing my folio to Kekai.

Bring the piece together more, add some interests and get the read. Mark making is splotchy. It seems as though I'm uncertain in use of which brushes correctly, to use for certain things.

Where's the focus?

Look at master paintings, move forward and iterate, slow and steady and get the job done. Don't rush.

BJORN HURRI

For design. Think in shapes, separate these out by their areas of major value. Design is about creating these strong shapes. Can it read from a distance?

Napkin test, can you draft the design on a napkin easily, does it read?

Vilppu - constrution of figures - worry about the read

Draw figures every fucking day.

Fix poses, make them more dynamic in a setting.

What do the shapes communicate? How the character will move, what will make it look like it moves quick, sluggish?

Jason Felix presenting, photo by Jamie Wong

I found a spirit both beautiful and terrifying in passing my collection of work over for a folio review to those I hold in awe. That moment while place it in their hands and you hold your breath in anticipation.

Very similar to carrying a shield into battle, and during every fray a small crack appears across the surface. Again and again. It breaks under the weight of all of the advice until you're left holding what is to you a broken instrument. Trust that it will hold, remain calm, and step forward for the next review, each time summing up the courage to acknowledge the mistakes, and delve deeper.

You carry all of the advice forward, and your collection of work reveals its true nature of flaws, but the cracks offer handholds for improvement.

I attained a wonderful sense of calm after London where nervousness burned itself out, as though it cauterized the nerves endings themselves. An opportune moment for amazing things to happen.

Friday, 10 May 2013

Bouncing onward from my recent Daily Deviation, the Skywhale piece soared ever onward into the hearts and minds of Tumblrites and has currently amassed 16,000 notes, full of likes and reblogs. Thankfully this has seen a bleeding effect on my other tumblr offerings and recent posts.

To all my new followers on Tumblr - F--K YES I luff all of you. I hope to fill your tumblr feeds with more awesome in our futures together.

Tumblr is a seriously powerful force to be reckoned with, I would reblog more stuff on there but I want to keep my main account purely my own stuff as an interactive ever changing gallery. I'm hoping to set up an inspiration tumblr in the near future, but there's so many on there already

I feel really humbled to be able to quantify that I have touched the minds / vision of almost 200,000 people through Imgur. That's amazing. I did some terrible math, and discovered that if each of those viewers offered up £1 each (I'm British), I'd be able to work for the next 10 years and produce roughly 4000+ paintings (of that quality)..... @_@

INPRNT

I submitted 3 pieces to INPRNT for review and I was thankfully successful. I now have the power to offer up high quality prints of my artwork for those of you who expressed interest.

Sunday, 5 May 2013

This image made it to the front page of IMGUR today which is a pretty cool honour, glad the image was well received and had me super pumped to create its counterpart artwork.

Artwork in tribute for May 4th, Free Comics Day. Hope you dig :D

I was listening to a lot of Judas Priest earlier in preparation for the next Crimson Bloodsports Challenge and the music got me super pumped that it will forever populate my working hour playlists. I've heard JP songs in the past, but it felt like today, I truly listened.

Monday, 29 April 2013

Woke up to find that I'd been given the honour of a Daily Deviation on Deviantart. A community I have frequented for years but never truly embraced to its' full potential until this year, and it is great to see that attitude reflected back. Thanks so much to annelienvdb for recommending, and Thiefoworld for awarding it :)

I look forward to my inbox swelling with the new watchers, comments and favourites, pushing me to create new work to share with you all. Thank you for taking the time to view, and express your support for my art.